Motorola

Motorola is the second largest maker of wireless handsets after global leader Nokia. After its spin-off of its semiconductor unit, Motorola reorganized to focus on enterprise mobility, mobile devices, and home and networks mobility. It also supplies wireless infrastructure equipment such as cellular transmission base stations, amplifiers, and servers. In 2006, it had sales of $43 billion and profits of $3.6 billion.

Company History
Motorola was originally founded as the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928. The first product that it introduced was the battery eliminator. Motorola has worked in wireless, broadband, and automotive communications technologies and embedded electronic products.

Political and Public Influence
Paragraph information

Political Contributions
Motorola gave $276,321 to federal candidates in the 2006 election through its political action committee - 31% to Democrats and 69% to Republicans.

Lobbying
The company spent $3,240,000 for lobbying in 2006. Some of the lobbying firms used were OB-C Group, Dutko Worldwide, Federalist Group, Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles LLC, and Ernst & Young.

Labor
In early 2006, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), learned that nine women in the Shenzhen (China) Hospital for Occupational Disease Treatment & Prevention were poisoned by n-hexane as a result of working at a plant contracted to produce for the company (Hivac). "Hivac agreed to give every worker suffering n-hexane poisoning a tiny sum of seven to eight thousand yuan. However, they pressured workers to agree, among other things, not to raise future complaints in connection with their disease. Otherwise, the employer said they would get no recompense at all. These efforts to silence workers from discussing the long term effects of their poisoning no doubt influenced the quality of the "independent" audit commissioned by Motorola." Hivac makes lenses for Motorola phones out of Nanshan, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in southern China. Exposure to toxic chemicals resulting in illness and birth defects has been a recurrent problem with suppliers of parts to cell phone manufacturers, including Motorola and Nokia

In the late 1980s, bitter and often violent battles broke out at the company's South Korean subsidiary over the right to form a union, according to the New York Times: We still don't understand, said Park Joon Hee, country manager for Motorola Korea (employer of 3,800 workers), reflecting on how workers' demands for union recognition escalated into nightmarish days of demonstrations, hunger strikes, near self-immolations and a long siege at the computer center. In January/February 1989 Multinational Monitor reported that an IMF study concluded that the company set up a kusadae - "save the company corps" - which consists of 'thugs' who offer their services to Korean companies. The primary work of the kusadae has been to intimidate trade union activists. The IMF charged that the Motorola kusadae has disrupted union meetings, attacked union organizers with iron bars and cattle prods, and set four union leaders on fire. Motorola had 5,000 employees in Seoul and in 1987 Motorola in Korea made $8.8 billion in profits.

As of 2006, workers in one of Motorola's handset supplier factories, Giant Wireless, in China, were forced upon threat of dismisasal, suspension, and wage penalties to work 12-13 hours a day, in violation of Chinese overtime rules. The illegal forced overtime is covered up by falsification of documents in a dual time-card bookkeeping system. In the same year, a SOMO report found that workers were being exposed to hazardous chemicals, and that female employees in the Giant Wireless factory in particular suffer from work-related menstrual disorders, fatigue, anemia, headache, and deterioration of eyesight. No occupational health and safety institutions were in place, and workers were not paid while hospitalized.

Further, despite dangerous conditions and forced overtime, workers in the Giant Wireless factory in Shenzhen were paid $0.12 an hour and $0.45 an hour for overtime, well below the legal minimum wages in China.

At the Flextronics factory in Pondicherry, India, which also supplies Motorola, workers are paid above the minimum wage, but, especially given transport costs to the factory, the wages paid(approximately $48 USD/month) are not enough to support any dependents.

Motorola purchases power supply devices including invertors, converters, and adapters from the Yonghong Electronics factory in Shenzhen. Yonghong is a member of the FSP Group and was founded in May 2000. In 2006, it was found to employ children under the age of 16, though by 2008 only workers of legal age were found to be working in the factory. Workers at the factory are forced to work up to 7 days a week and 100-200 hours of overtime a month, in clear violation of Chinese labor law. Exhaustion is a common problem amongst workers at the factory, and they are often paid wages below the legal minimum, especially probationary (new) workers. While some workers are paid the legal minimum wage of 750 yuan/month, the system in place to pay overtime wages does not pay for more than 3 hours of overtime a day, even though workers are forced to work longer in order to make the daily production quotas. Because of the repetitive nature of the factory work and the extreme long hours, besides exhaustion, workers suffer from repetitive motion injuries, and neck, shoulder, and back pain are common. The problem is exacerbated by the management policy that fines workers for moving their chairs from a yellow line painted on the floor to make all chairs placed in a straight line, a policy even worse for smaller employees who are not close enough to reach their work tables comfortably. Workers are not provided with hazard or safety training or face masks and inhale fumes produced by soldering. Workers at the Yonghong factory are not permitted to stop working there, despite the Chinese labor law code which allows for resignation with one-month prior notice. Employees complain that management refuses to look at their applications of resignation. Workers sleep in rooms with 12 people in the dormitories, and they expressed concerns to SACOM interviewers about the quality and cleanliness of the food provided to them.

Human Rights
A 2008 study demonstrated that Motorola, as well as several other major manufacturers of mobile phones, including Nokia, LG, and Samsung use cobalt mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the production of their mobile phones, thereby running the risk of supporting unfair labor practices in the mines and serious related human rights abuses. Despite the companies former claims that they could not trace the origins of cobalt and other minerals used in the production of their mobile handsets, the report demonstrates that supply chains are identifiable and notes that despite this information, none of the mobile phone companies have taken action to insure that their cobalt suppliers comply with their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

Consumer Protection and Product Safety
"In Cellular Telephone Russian Roulette, author Robert Kane, a former top Motorola engineer, traces the history of cell phone development (in which he was involved) and analyzes the cell phone radiation bioeffects research base from 1950 to 1996. Despite industry’s claim to safety, Kane’s report shows that there was much more information available indicating safety concerns than the industry has ever acknowledged."

Another interesting book written by corporate insider is Dr. George Carlo's book, Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age: An Insider's Alarming Discoveries About Cancer and Genetic Damage (Carroll and Graf, 2001).

Social Responsibility Initiatives
Motorola claims in its policy for suppliers that it is committed to ensuring its suppliers do not violate workers’ rights.

Business Scope
Motorola Subsidiaries
 * Motorola Australia Proprietary Ltd (Austrailia)
 * Motorola Industrial Ltda (Brazil)
 * Motorola Servicios Ltda (Brazil)
 * Motorola Canada Ltd (Canada)
 * Hangzhou Motorola Cellular Equipment Co Ltd (China)
 * Motorola (China) Electronics Ltd (China)
 * Motorola (China) Investment Ltd (China)
 * Motorola SAS (France)
 * Motorola Gmbh (Germany)
 * Motorola Asia Ltd (Hong Kong)
 * Motorola South Israel Ltd (Israel)
 * Motorola Israel Ltd (Israel)
 * Motorola Japan Ltd (Japan)
 * Motorola Technology Sdn Bhd (Malaysia)
 * Motorola Electronics Sdn Bhd (Malaysia)
 * Motorola de Mexica SA (Mexico)
 * Motorola Finance BV (Netherlands)
 * Motorola Asia Treasury Pte Ltd (Singapore)
 * Motorola Electronics Ptd Ltd (Singapore)
 * General Instrument of Taiwan Ltd (Taiwan)
 * Motorola Electronics Taiwan Ltd (Taiwan)
 * Motorola Ltd (United Kingdom)
 * General Instrument Corp
 * River Delta Networks Inc.
 * Synchronous Inc
 * Network Ventures I Inc
 * Motorola Credit Corp
 * Tohoku Semiconductor Corp (Japan)
 * Synchronous Inc
 * Quantum Bridge COmmunications (R) Inc
 * Force Computers
 * MeshNetworks Inc
 * CRISNET Inc
 * Post Year End Acquisition
 * Ucentric Systems Inc
 * Post Year End Joing Venture
 * Triarc Content Labs

Financial Information (2008)
Ticker Symbol:MOT Main Exchanges:NYSE, Chicago, Toyko Investor Website:http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=90829&p=irol-intermediate

Table: Largest Shareholders

Motorola handsets are generally produced in Asia, largely through subcontractors, but the company's own production facilities are located in Brazil, China, Germany, South Korea, Singapore, and Malyasia. Motorola's research and development facilities are located in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Governance
Selected Motorola board members:
 * David W. Dorman, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T
 * Judy C. Lewent, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Merck
 * Thomas J. Meredith, Former Chief Financial Officer, Dell, Inc.
 * James R. Stengel, Global Marketing Officer, Procter & Gamble
 * Douglas A.  Warner, III, Former Chairman, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
 * Miles D. White, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Abbott Laboratories
 * Nicholas Negroponte

Contact Information
Motorola Inc. 1303 East Algonquin Road Schaumburg, IL 60196 Phone: 847-576-5000 Fax: 847-576-5372 Web: http://www.motorola.com

External Articles

 * Martin Veitch, "Greenpeace Praises Dell for Green IT, Slams Motorola", IT Week/CorpWatch, June 26, 2006.
 * Aaron Glantz, "Nokia, Dell Get 'Light Green' Rating from Greenpeace; Apple in the Red", Oneworld.net/CorpWatch, September 6, 2006.
 * Geoffrey Lean, "Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking'", The Independent (UK), March 28, 2008.
 * "Motorola Refuses Responsibility for Poisoned Workers, Hides Violations in Second Tier Suppliers", January 19th, 2007.
 * SACOM, "The Working Condition of Motorola's Supplier Factory in China", 2006.